I hunt around 25 feet. Used to have a 15 foot ladder stand and shot deer out if it but would get spoted alot and winded by deer. Since I went higher last year I was never spoted by a deer and was only winded by a nice six pointer once. The higher you go your chances of getting caught go down. I personally think anything over 30 feet would not be needed but I also hunt flat ground too. My opinion of a shoting lane is when you sit in thick stuff you clear out the branches to open up a "shooting lane" but I could be wrong cause I had scrapes and rubs mixed up until three years ago.[&:]